House Democrats granted limited access to Trump financial records
By Rachel Weiner,
House Democrats investigating Donald Trump can have access to his personal financial records from 2017 and 2018, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, as well as information related to his lease of a building near the White House.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta of Washington had previously ruled that the former president’s accountants must turn over a broader array of records. But the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled that courts must take separation of powers concerns into account when members of Congress want personal information from the president.
Because of Congress’s role in overseeing the president’s foreign business interests, Mehta said, release of the records from 2017 and 2018 is justified.
[Trump, fighting to toss out subpoena, offered to give House Democrats peek at financial statements]
If lawmakers could not access the records, he wrote, “presidents could simply conceal foreign emoluments from Congress to avoid scrutiny — a result contrary to the Framers’ intent.”
But the judge said lawmakers could not access Trump’s personal financial records from before he took office. Democrats had sought records dating from 2011 to 2018.
“The more Congress can invade the personal sphere of a former President, the greater the leverage Congress would have on a sitting President,” Mehta wrote.
Information related to Trump’s lease of the Old Post Office Building from the General Services Administration, Mehta ruled, should also be shared, because lawmakers might well have demanded the same records from a private citizen. Trump chose to lease a building from the federal government, Mehta said, and to keep his stake in it while serving as president.
The situation, he wrote, “is unique to President Trump,” he wrote.
Read more:
In court, he speaks for Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Congress should get Trump’s tax returns, Biden Justice Department says
